“News broke recently that Apple hired Philip Stanger, CEO of indoor location technology start-up WiFarer, for a ‘leadership role’ at Apple. Blog after blog has repeated the story, with the assumption that Stanger will be working on improving the Apple Maps user experience,” Bruce Krulwich writes for Seeking Alpha. “On the surface, this makes sense. Apple Maps has not lived up to expectations, and Apple definitely needs the next Apple Maps to be a lot better. This would definitely be worth hiring for.”
“But if we take a deeper look, it appears that Apple has a lot more than improved maps on the horizon. It appears that Apple is about to launch a revolution in indoor location technology. It’s called SLAM, which stands for ‘simultaneous localization and mapping,'” Krulwich writes. “In layman’s terms, it could be described as ‘figure out where you are as you walk around.’ It has the potential to open up mapping and location-based applications in any indoor site worldwide.”
“I speculate that Apple is preparing to release SLAM on iOS,” Krulwich writes. “Imagine if every iPhone were SLAMming indoor sites as they move around. With all those iPhones out there, in no time Apple could build up maps and signal databases for indoor sites all over the world, all using SLAM. These maps and databases could then be used to estimate indoor locations universally and efficiently. This would leapfrog all efforts to date in indoor location positioning, and give Apple the lead in supporting location-based applications indoors.”
“In September, 2013, Apple added a new chip to the iPhone 5s, the M7 motion sensing chip, which has the ability to “continuously measure motion data” using the phone’s sensors,” Krulwich writes. “Apple’s announcement discussed its use in exercise apps and gesture control, but they also hinted that it would be used in Maps. Nobody at the time appears to have understood this in reference to indoor location positioning by sensor fusion or SLAM.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Indoor positioning startup Wifarer’s founder now works for Apple – May 1, 2014
Apple’s Siri and WifiSlam: A perfect match – April 10, 2013
Understanding Apple’s WiFiSLAM acquistion and what’s next – April 4, 2013
How indoor location could find its way into Apple services – March 25, 2013
Apple wants to map your favorite malls and airports – March 25, 2013
Apple acquires indoor location company WifiSLAM for $20 million – March 23, 2013
If this is true, the haters will be having their lips sewn shut
Let’s not stop there! … glue up the keys on their physical keyboards.
😉
That’s all I need for Uncle Sam knowing exactly where I am. Even if I am on the toilet!
“Film at 11”
…can you even say “film” anymore?
😉
You can if a toilet is involved.
Like the NSA doesn’t already. They just don’t care.
Yes, & now make their work easier! At least give them a challenge!
Offer iPhone users Apple Store/iTunes credit to install a SLAM app and collect data for Apple to build/refine maps. Bam!
I couldn’t get passed this:
Bruce Krulwich writes for Seeking Alpha. “On the surface, this makes sense. Apple Maps has not lived up to expectations, and Apple definitely needs the next Apple Maps to be a lot better. This would definitely be worth hiring for.”
Is it still 2012? Bruce, you are a couple years older now….
Exactly what I thought. Aside from needing public transportation information, which I use occasionally, I have never had to use Google Maps app instead of Apple Maps. I always thought the “Maps is terrible!” was fairly hyperbolic – it was the ultimate in using anecdotes to prove a point that could only really be proven by an overall evaluation. We use the turn-by-turn on our iPhones over the nav system built into our car and have never had a problem. Obviously, that PROVES that Apple Maps is great. Just as much as finding a place listed incorrectly proves it was terrible. Oh, wait. The icon was wrong! That really proves it is terrible.
No, no…it is terrible because of the colour of the icon…
No, it was bad because it didn’t work very well for many people based on location a lot of time time. I like Apple but won’t kiss their butt like most. Apple has issues too no where near perfect
I was just poking fun at the iOS 7 GUI critics. But I am one of them. In fact, I don’t like some of Apple’s OS X app icons so I replace them with my own. I wish we could do that with iOS, because I find Apple’s icons are too similar to quickly pick one out. I expect iOS 8 to rectify this sameness problem—I can’t be the only one with this “minor” frustration.
Which is what he was saying it works perfectly well for very many people and for some it seems it doesn’t. Google maps is crap on many occasion too though its years of maturity probably overall make it at present more reliable on average. A maps application will take some time to perfect and at this stage it’s looking pretty good.
Ah, you’re not Murrican…
We go myrtle beach every year. That city is an iMaps black hole. Their restaurant data appears to be from another millennium. We’ll see in a few months if that’s as true for 2014 as it was for 2013, 2012…
That’s because Myrtle Beach is a black hole.
Apple’s Maps is still a turd sandwich, completely unreliable where I live. Unfortunately one can’t change the default mapping app on IOS to another mapping app of choice that actually has a clue where things and places are. After repeated Apple Maps failures in recent weeks I’m completely over it and don’t understand how Apple can make such a meal of it. OK, I do actually, they used the same template they used to f**k up the Apple TV.
I wonder if this will eventually be useful for the visually impaired.
You mean as in avoiding obstacles in an unfamiliar place? That’s an interesting idea.
“…but they also hinted that it would be used in Maps.”
I don’t remember that. Does anyone else remember any kind of hint like this during that keynote?
They seem to be projecting their own thoughts. In the September 2013 event Phil Schiller presented the M7 at 42:30 in this clip. He didn’t mention Maps.
Actually SLAM is already used to mean “Shit Leaving Analysts’ Mouths” although in the southern hemisphere you can expand the usage to mean “Shit Leaving Anustralians’ Mouths.”
I always enjoy reading comments on my articles. What I find amazing here, among the Apple fanboys, is that here I am predicting that Apple’s going to rock the world with some new technology that will let their location positioning work indoors in a more universal way than ever before, and you’re all acting as if I’ve insulted your diety when I imply that Apple Maps needs to improve or whatever. Guys, this prediction is the most pro-Apple prediction around these days. The rest of the world is wondering whether Apple’s legacy of innovation is wrong, while I’m predicting they have a huge ace up their sleeve and are about to play it.
Regarding Apple’s hinting about the M7 being used for Maps, I was quoting 9to5Mac, but in fact Apple gave use-cases for the M7 in Maps here: http://www.apple.com/iphone-5s/features/
Regarding whether Maps needs improvements, obviously Apple Maps has its fans just like everything has fans. But if you search blog articles for “apple maps” you’ll see an awful lot that think Apple Maps needs to be overhauled. Every Apple blog out there said that the guy I discussed was hired in order to improve Apple Maps UX.
Of course, I admitted freely that my speculation was in fact speculation. I may be wrong, and Apple may not bring out SLAM soon. If they’ don’t, someone else will soon, and it won’t be the first opportunity they’ve missed in the past year or so. But as my article said, I’m predicting that Apple will pull this one off.